THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



15 



States; what would tlie Editor say to it? "Would 

 he not fling it incontinently into the waste-bas- 

 ket? "Would he not cry out: " Tliis fellow is 

 either a fool or a madman, or else he is trying 

 to poke fun at me?" At all events, the idea of 

 printing such a document in his journal would 

 be the very last thing that could possibly enter 

 his head: 



HOW TO DESTROY RATS— A SUGGESTION, 



Let any farmer examine those com cribs wlicre the 

 greatest quantity of corn is stored, and he will always 

 lind there the greatest number of fidl-grown rats, aiid 

 also quantities of young rats of all sizes. Now let him 

 closely inspect the ears of corn in such a corn crib, and 

 he will assuredly notice many kernels that are reduced 

 to nothing but an empty shell, just as a hen's egg be- 

 comes empty after the young chicken has burst its way 

 out of it. 



I am no naturalist, consequently can not tell, but I 

 ask : Is it not possible , nay probable , that all the young 

 rats in the corn crib hatched out from these eniptv 

 shells? If so, the destruction of the whole brood of 

 rats throughout the length and breadtli of the United 

 States Is easy. All that will be required will be to 

 scald or kiln-dry the corn upon every farm, before it 

 is finally cribbed. By this means every rat's egg in the 

 whole country will be addled, and a final stop will be 

 put to the future propagation of this pernicious animal. 



In former years tlie old-fashioned Sucker farmers of 

 Illinois used'to let their com stand out in the field all 

 through the winter, and never think of gathering it till 

 it was almost time to plant the land for a second crop. 

 Then we heard little of the brown Wliarf-rat or Nor- 

 way rat. Nowit has become a fixture with us. Doubt- 



froze so hard that they could never afterwards hatch 

 out; while in these modem times the com is usually 

 gathered and cribbed early in the autumn , and by this 

 means the rats' eggs are protected from the severity of 

 the wintry blast. ;md hatch out with the utmost punc- 

 tuality and precision 



It is well known, that several years ago, when corn 

 was worth only ten cents a bushel and coal was as higli 

 as fifteen cents', many Illinois famiers commonly burnt 

 corn in their stoves instead of coal. Ignqrant men 

 have often blamed them for so doing; but in reality 

 they should have been highly commended for such con- 

 duct, instead of being, so to speak, hauled over the 

 coals for it. Can any sane man believe that these patri- 

 otic fanners burnt corn instead of coal, for the sake of 

 saving the paltry difference of five cents a bushel 

 in their fuel? No such thing! They were burn- 

 ing UP THE rats' eggs! 



Now let the reader observe the ridiculous 

 nonsense which several agi-icultural journals 

 in the South have recently printed and re- 

 printed on the subject of the propagation of the 

 Cotton worm— an insect which, on the aver- 

 age of years, destroys annually about fifty 

 million dollars' worth of cotton in the South. 

 The whole history of this species, be it observed, 

 is as well known to entomologists as that of the 

 Hog or the Sheep is to fanners, and has been 

 repeatedly explained and illustrated by Mr. 

 Glover, the Entomologist of the Agricultural 

 Department at "Washington, in official docu- 

 ments published by the Government for the ben- 

 efit of the southern cotton planter. To condense 

 the whole into a nutshell: The mother Moth 

 lives through the winter. Early in the summer 



she lays her eggs upon the leaves of the young 

 and growing cotton plant. These eggs soon 

 hatch out into young caterpillars, which devour 

 the leaves with the greatest avidity till they 

 get their full growth, when they form a cocoon 

 among the leaves, and shortly afterwards trans- 

 form into the winged moth. The same process 

 is repeated twice over during the summer, thus 

 originating three distinct broods of Cotton 

 worms, each usually more numerous than the 

 preceding, and the last the most destructive of 

 the three. Finally, the last set of moths gener- 

 ated in this manner comes out late in the au- 

 tumn, and such of tliem as are not destroyed by 

 hungry insect-feeders in the dead of the year 

 live through the winter, and renew the same 

 old cycle of changes year after year and century 

 after century. 



One would think that, in consideration 

 of the economic importance of knowing 

 something about the habits of this same Cotton 

 worm, every person connected in any way with 

 the agriculture of the South would be familiar 

 with its natural history. No such thing! Here 

 is the balderdash that leading agricultural jour- 

 nals in Tennessee and Louisiana have just pub- 

 lished on this most important of all subjects to 

 them : 



now TO destroy the cotton wor.m — a sug- 

 hestkjn. 



Let planters examiin' the idttmi still remaining in the 

 fields where the ra\ ai;. s m tli. rati rpillar were greatest, 

 and they will find tin Ijuik in > punctured in many 

 pliices, resembling tlir '>rilic.- iiiadc by the passage of a 

 very small shot. Let tiiciii Imak or split the limo near 

 the"puncture, and tlnv will tiiid a small maggot or egg 

 imbedded in the pitli. not cxcicding an eighth of an 

 inch in length, and not lar-cr than a small needle. 

 They are nearly equally pointed at the ends, and so 

 hard as not to be easily broken, and when broken emit 

 a yellow, glutinous substance. They arc nearly white 

 in color. 



I am no natui-alist, consequentiv can not tell, but I 

 ask: Is it not possible, nav prolialilc. that this is the 

 larvaof the fly? and if so, t'lirir iirs|nirii(,ii is easy. In 

 former years it was (•ustinnaiy w illi the planters to 

 bum the stalks instia.l of thrrsiiiii;.' tlicni, as has grown 

 in USQ of latp. Thin wc heard little of the caterpillar; 

 now it has luconir a tixtnre with us. Alter the stalks 

 .are threslicd thr liramlns are plowed in the ground, 

 where prohably tlu' la-oiess of incubation goes on until 

 the fly comes forth to subsist on what it can find, until 

 the cotton plant is in a condition to suit its rather fas- 

 tidious taste. 



The time is at hand for clearing the field for another 

 crop, and certainly no harm will be done nor much time 

 lost, if, instead of threshing the stalks, the planters 

 would pull them up and burn them, thus in course of 

 time ridding us of a vulture which has for the past two 

 years been feeding on the vitals of our principal staple. 



Now, what can be the reason that an absurd 

 speculation on the generative economy of the 

 common Brown'Kat, such as has been printed 

 above, would be laughed to scorn by every edi- 

 tor throughout; the land ;7while an equally ab- 

 surd speculation on the generative economy of 

 the Cotton Worm, has been actually printed in 



